Why should we avoid being in debt?

Question

Sun Myung Moon · Accepted Answer

Debt is usually treated as a purely financial matter, a question of interest rates and repayment schedules. Scripture treats it as a spiritual condition. Borrowing places one person under another, unpaid obligation breeds resentment on both sides, and resentment is precisely the soil in which evil works. Understanding why debt matters spiritually explains why the Bible warns about it so plainly and why the warning applies to far more than money. The Biblical Foundation Paul gives the standard directly: "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8). Proverbs states the consequence: "The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender" (Proverbs 22:7), and warns against casual guarantees, "Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts. If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?" (Proverbs 22:26-27). Failing to repay is treated as a moral failure, not merely a misfortune: "The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth" (Psalm 37:21). God's blessing is described in terms of independence: "thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow" (Deuteronomy 15:6). Jesus urged people to count the cost before committing themselves, asking who would build a tower without first calculating whether he had enough to finish it (Luke 14:28), and his parable of the servant forgiven an enormous debt who then seized his fellow servant by the throat shows how unpaid obligation corrodes the heart of everyone it touches (Matthew 18:23-35). The Principle's Clarification The Principle clarifies why an unsettled obligation is spiritually dangerous. Wherever there is a claim unmet and a grievance unresolved, a condition exists that evil can use to accuse and to interfere. Debt reverses the proper order of relationships: instead of standing as equals who give to one another, one party is placed above and the other beneath, and dominion passes from love to leverage. The borrower begins to live for the creditor rather than for God and neighbour, and the creditor begins to see a brother as an asset. Both positions distort the giving-and-receiving action through which love is supposed to flow. Debt is also not only financial. We can be indebted in heart — through promises not kept, help received and never returned, harm done and never repaired. Such debts are recorded in the person, not in a ledger, and they do not disappear at death, because the character and the relationships we form on earth are what we carry into the spirit world. Resentment left behind on earth continues to bind both the one who caused it and the one who bears it, and the burden readily passes down to descendants who inherit the family's unresolved grievances along with its blessings. This is why the providence of restoration proceeds by paying indemnity: what is owed must be settled before what was lost can be restored. God himself does not simply cancel accounts by fiat; he restores by having conditions fulfilled. The Completed Understanding Avoiding debt, then, is not financial timidity but freedom for God's purpose. A person free of obligation can give when giving is needed, go where they are sent, speak the truth without calculating who holds power over them, and love without being owned. A person buried in obligation loses that freedom even when their intentions are good. The teaching is not that borrowing is always sinful — Scripture regulates lending and commands generosity to the poor — but that debt is a burden to be discharged quickly rather than a way of life, and that the deeper debt of love is the only one we are told to keep carrying. The safest position before God and neighbour is to owe nothing and to be always giving first, since the person who gives before receiving stands in God's own position and gives evil no claim to press. Living the Principle Live below your means so that you are never forced to borrow for what you merely want. Where you already owe, make repayment a matter of conscience and settle it as fast as you can, communicating honestly with those you owe rather than hiding. Keep your promises small enough to keep, and avoid guaranteeing obligations you could not cover. Repay debts of heart as diligently as debts of money: apologise, restore what you damaged, and return the kindness you received. Do not lend in a way that makes a brother your servant, and forgive as you have been forgiven. Then take the freedom that comes from owing nothing and spend it on the one debt worth keeping — the endless obligation to love.

Why should we avoid being in debt?

The Biblical Foundation

The Principle's Clarification

The Completed Understanding

Living the Principle

Sources and further reading